diff --git a/nanochat/checkpoint_manager.py b/nanochat/checkpoint_manager.py
index 99f260e..79ba998 100644
--- a/nanochat/checkpoint_manager.py
+++ b/nanochat/checkpoint_manager.py
@@ -20,6 +20,16 @@ def log0(message):
     if int(os.environ.get('RANK', 0)) == 0:
         logger.info(message)
 
+def _patch_missing_keys(model_data, model_config):
+    """Add default values for new parameters that may be missing in old checkpoints."""
+    n_layer = model_config.n_layer
+    # resid_lambdas defaults to 1.0 (identity scaling)
+    if "resid_lambdas" not in model_data:
+        model_data["resid_lambdas"] = torch.ones(n_layer)
+    # x0_lambdas defaults to 0.0 (disabled)
+    if "x0_lambdas" not in model_data:
+        model_data["x0_lambdas"] = torch.zeros(n_layer)
+
 def save_checkpoint(checkpoint_dir, step, model_data, optimizer_data, meta_data, rank=0):
     if rank == 0:
         os.makedirs(checkpoint_dir, exist_ok=True)
@@ -76,6 +86,7 @@ def build_model(checkpoint_dir, step, device, phase):
     model_config_kwargs = meta_data["model_config"]
     log0(f"Building model with config: {model_config_kwargs}")
     model_config = GPTConfig(**model_config_kwargs)
+    _patch_missing_keys(model_data, model_config)
     with torch.device("meta"):
         model = GPT(model_config)
     # Load the model state